YSRCP leaders hail 3 capitals, slam Chandrababu Naidu

Amaravati/Visakhapatnam/Srikakulam: Reiterating that Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy wants development of all regions through decentralisation, YSRCP leaders and ministers slammed TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu for trying to promote commercial activity by concentrating development only at Amaravati.

Speaking to media at separate venues, they said that the TDP leadership has no moral right to talk on the capital issue as it planned to create wealth for a few and in one region while depriving others of any benefit and demeaning the institutions of the Governor and the Legislative Council.

Minister for animal husbandry and fisheries Seediri Appalaraju said that the previous government made Amaravati into a commercial venture to benefit the coterie of leadership.

The previous government made a tall claim of initially requiring Rs 1 lakh crore for capital but had spent only Rs 10,000 crore on Amaravati.

The minister criticised Naidu for ignoring recommendations of Sivarama Krishnan Committee that suggested decentralisation to avoid an imbalance of development in the state and hence Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy brought this decentralisation after appointing three committees.

He said that the opposition TDP leaders tried to stall the Bills in Legislative Council and even went to the extent of holding up the Appropriation Bill for salaries.

Appalaraju also said that Naidu completed Pattiseema in one year to draw water for Amaravati region from the right canal of Polavaram but did not touch the left canal which benefits north coastal Andhra. The Chief Minister took interest in it and sanctioned Rs 2,022 crore for the project.

Agriculture munister Kurasala Kannababu hit out at the opposition leaders for finding fault with the Governor in approving the two Bills passed by the Assembly.

The minister asked why Naidu was opposing the executive capital in Visakhapatnam, which is a developed city next to Hyderabad having all the natural resources.

He came down heavily on Naidu for claiming that capital in Amaravati was opposed to downgrade a particular caste and asked why Naidu was opposed to lands being given to the poor in Amravati.

He questioned Naidu whether the people of that caste were not well established in Vizag. He said it was a monumental decision taken by Jagan Mohan Reddy for decentralisation which would bring about the all-round development of the state.

Meanwhile, senior YSRCP leader and MLA Dharmana Prasada Rao said decentralisation of administration by bringing about three capitals was a novel initiative by Jagan Mohan Reddy. He said people had already realised the benefit of having village secretariats which was the first step in the decentralisation process of administration for better outreach.

MLA Gudivawada Amarnath said that Visakhapatnam has the potential to be the capital and the decentralised administration would result in equitable development of all the regions. People of the state were pretty confident that Jagan's vision would bring back glory to all regions.

Meanwhile, MLA Jogi Ramesh said that any amount of mudslinging by Naidu cannot stop the decentralisation process set in by the Chief Minister. He challenged Naidu to make his 23 MLAs resign and go to polls and said the TDP would not even win a single seat.